The Cliwi hydronic technology used by The Bristol Pest Controller is designed to cause the least possible disturbance and inconvenience to both residential and commercial customers.
The result is high speed, heated air that is taken right to the source of the insect infestation. This hot air gradually raises the temperature of both the building structure and the contents of the building. It means that insect pests are killed whether they are easily accessible or tucked away in gaps, crevices and upholstery.
Scalability is key – infestations can be removed on small scale (for example a bedroom) or a large scale such as hotel premises.
Speed is also a major benefit. Hotel owners, landlords, restaurant owners, factory owners and farmers can all enjoy same-day treatment of an infestation, and a return visit is unlikely to be needed because all stages of the insect lifecycle are eliminated. In fact, we provide an XX-week guarantee that includes a return visit in those unusual cases where the treatment has not been 100% successful.
Whereas chemical treatments cannot always reliably permeate areas such as large structural timbers, sub-floors and gable ends, the heat builds over time and reaches all of the insect pests.
Probes are used to make certain that the core temperature of inaccessible areas reaches a high enough, lethal temperature, and that temperature is maintained for long enough to entirely wipe out the infestation.
How does heat kill all insects at all lifecycle stages?
Eliminating any insect pest, including persistent infestations such as bed bugs, relies on killing every stage of the insect lifecycle – egg, larvae, pupae and adult.
The challenges faced by conventional pesticide treatments are many:
- Resistance: Adult bed bugs or other insects may have developed resistance to the particular pesticide used. This can be addressed in part by return visits and the use of more than one pesticide, but new resistant bugs can develop at any time.
- Insects that are hiding: Bed bugs present a particular challenge, with their size and ability to hide in the tiniest cracks and spaces. There is always a chance that an adult or two may escape the pesticide.
- Insect eggs: It is especially difficult to kill insect eggs, and a repeat visit will usually be essential in order to deal with new adult pests that have hatched since the initial treatment.
What are the advantages of Heat Treatment?
Using heat to kill insects overcomes all of the challenges created by chemical treatments. Insect eggs, larvae, pupae and adults are all killed reliably when they are raised to a temperature (at least 49°C) where their protective external coating breaks down and their basic protein structure denatures – essentially, they are ‘cooked’ (and also dehydrated). Insects have no cooling mechanism such as sweating, so they are not able to develop resistance.
Heat can reach into all of the gaps, cracks, crevices and spaces where insects or eggs may lurk, and it will kill 100% of the infestation when the right equipment is used.
See it in action
To get the most out of your bed bug treatment we’ll arrange the furniture in each room to allow for the best flow of air to the targeted areas. Using our specialist bed bug heat treatment, we’ll raise the temperature of the complete room to eliminate the infestation.
Heating the room to the optimum kill temperature, monitoring and maintaining it throughout the treatment is key to ensure the infestation is eradicated. The area is checked continuously for bed bug activity throughout the treatment. Heat treatments are far safer than traditional chemical treatments. At the end all furniture and belongings are replace to where they were found.